PrepWell Podcast with Phil Black
PrepWell Podcast with Phil Black
Phil Black
Ep. 330 | How To Build A Target List
10 minutes Posted Aug 15, 2026 at 7:53 pm.
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Show notes

In this week's podcast, I review one of the most challenging (but important) parts of the college admissions process.

Building a target list of colleges

This entails narrowing down a list of 4,000+ colleges to a manageable list of 10-14 colleges that meet all of your child's preferences, such as:

  • big school, small school, medium school
  • location
  • urban, suburban, rural
  • majors
  • selectivity
  • residential life
  • et cetera

The list of 10-14 target colleges also needs to reflect an appropriate mix of reach, match, and likely schools.
In today's episode, I zero-in on one strategy that may help unlock colleges that might be hiding from consideration.

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PrepWell Academy's Founder, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Phil Black⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, has spent a lifetime cracking the code on the world's most competitive programs: Yale University, Harvard Business School, Navy SEALs, Goldman Sachs, Entrepreneurship, Shark Tank (2X), etc.